Digital video recording (DVR) technology has made it possible to provide more intelligent trick playback of video data, in addition to the traditional time based trick mode. For example, advertisement zapping is proposed, allowing a user to skip a specific period if the video is pre-recorded and indexed with adequate meta-data.
There are various ways to insert resp. associate meta-data into resp. with a video stream. The automatic scene detection is a relevant technology, which can mark key scene changes of a video stream. Meta-data can be created for key scenes and inserted into a video stream.
The scene meta-data can be applied to support a scene-based trick mode. The scene-based trick mode concerns all playback control actions, such as fast forward, rewind or slow playback, the control being based on scenes instead of timestamps. The advantage of scene-based trick mode is to allow moving quickly through a video without losing important scenes.
A DVD chapter book menu can perform a scene-based playback control. However, it only supports a “GOTO”-style function which allows the playback to go to certain chapters/sessions of a movie. But this is not a replacement for the traditional trick mode.
A disadvantage of the above mentioned conventional scene-based trick mode is that it may confuse people who are used to the time-based trick mode through using traditional tools, such as a remote controller.
Another disadvantage arises from the lack of a mechanism for improving the trick mode creation.